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My Song is My Own

My Song is My Own

100 Women's Songs

by Kathy Henderson, Frankie Armstrong and Sandra Kerr

A powerful and hilarious collection of women's songs from the last five centuries, supplemented with sheet music.
A collection of powerful, evocative and hilarious songs collected in the 1970s, My Song is My Own takes the reader on a musical journey of courtship, desire and sex, marriage, motherhood,childhood and work from the last five centuries.

With full sheet music for every song, and accompanying lyrics, this is perfect for singers as well as readers. Each section is introduced with a a brief thematic history, showing how the music has developed over time.

From ballads to industrial songs written for the mine and factory, from folk revivals to children's songs for the street and playground, this book reveals the hidden culture and history of women for us today.

Kathy Henderson is an award-winning author and illustrator, whose books have received international acclaim. Her books include The Little Boat, which was shortlisted for the Smarties prize and won the Kurt Maschler Award, and Look At You, and Lugulbanda: The Boy who Got Caught Up in a War, which won the Aesop prize of the American Folklore Society.

Frankie Armstrong has sung traditional and contemporary songs which illuminate women's lives within the folk scene and the women's movement since the 1960s. She has been made honorary President of the Natural Voice Network for her pioneering work in making singing available and inclusive to all.

Sandra Kerr is co-writer of the music for the TV series, Bagpuss, and was for many years a core lecturer on the degree course in Folk and Traditional Music at Newcastle University. She has also directed her women's choir, Werca's Folk, and the Sidmouth Festival Choir for nearly 25 years.

'An excellent read' - The Guardian
Introduction
Part I: Love, Courtship and Desire
1. I Long to Have a Man
2. The Unfortunate Lass
3. The Thing is My Own
Part II: Marriage
4. Take Your Partners...
5. We've Been Together Now for Forty Years
6. Nothing Between Us Now
Part III: Motherhood and Childhood
7. We Must Choose
8. When Suzy Was a Baby
Part IV: Work - the Waged and the Unwaged
9. A Woman's Work...
10. The Boss's Darling?
11. Keep That Trouble Stirring
Index of Song Titles
Index of First Lines
Select Bibliography
Select Discography
Sources and Acknowledgments
Published by Pluto Press in Jan 1979
Paperback ISBN: 9780861040322

135mm x 215mm